Why Elon Musk Is Planning Towns for Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Co. Workers | WSJ
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- Опубліковано 7 тра 2024
- Elon Musk is planning to build two different company towns in Texas for his Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Company workers: Snailbrook and Starbase. But the history of company towns presents a cautionary tale for industrialists.
In the almost 200 years that company towns have existed in the U.S., rarely do these planned communities live up to their creator’s utopian vision. WSJ explores why Musk is looking to the company town model for his properties in Texas.
0:00 Elon Musk’s planned towns in Texas
0:45 What’s happening at Snailbrook and Starbase?
4:05 The history of company towns
6:30 How Musk’s towns could succeed
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A big step forward into an era that should have been left in the past. Unfortunately, Americans don’t have the values of the promise of Democracy as much anymore and will capitulate.
The US is a constitutional republic, not a dumbocracy.
If you lose your job in a company town, do you get evicted, too?
Yes.
No! It depends on the local laws. You would only be directly evicted if the company controlled the government -like Disney in FL.
@@skyak4493 Who makes the local laws? The Company?
Imagine you work on a submarine. How long do you think they let you keep sleeping there after you quit?
In the old days, when folks in company towns tried to unionize, they sent the Pinkertons in to shoot them. The company still exists 😅
Even in Ireland in the 1950's the largest company in the country was building housing estates for workers, arranging affordable mortgages and providing lifetime jobs. I grew up in one of those estates and it was very family orientated. I had a good childhood for the most part and even kids who came on holidays for a few weeks some summers reminisced about how nice it was. We had large green areas, playgrounds, and our particular estate even has a pitch and putt club behind it. Those estates are still standing and gong strong.
The company was/is called Bord Na Mona - look it up
Well that company is gone now
@@martinnolan4332 👎 So what? Also gone are millions of companies that did not build such communities.
And in America coal mining towns paid employees in SCRIPT
It's a blurry line between work and "free time"
Why is that “big brother like control”? Is he forcing people to stay in those towns?
Seems like an insane argument? He is providing homes and schools for workers. That’s a good thing
All mainstream legacy sources cannot be trusted when it comes to Elon Musk.
Exactly, its not like these workers are trapped on an island. They are a 10 minute drive from another big town. They are not trapped there.
Happens to mining company orpower plant all the time
@@sc5922 Very different situations to historical mining companies.
Funny thing is that there’s nothing unique about this concept. The TATA company of India created large townships around their factories for its employees. Since these factories were located in remote locations these townships provided facilities for the families of employees like schools, hospitals etc. One such township is in Jamshedpur, India, named after its founder, Sir Jamshedji Tata.
Own nothing , you are company property.
@@sundararajan33 哈哈他们和其他人竞争我来自中国并且在印度有很多朋友这是一个该死的很酷的国家至少没有大规模枪击比赛举行可怜的美国人😂
Tata did nothing new, this was normal in 1900s Europe until the 60s or so. It is a way for companies to fight laws intended to improve the lives of labourers. When all of your life is owned by the company, you will not protest anything. So Tata is doing the same, just 100 years later.
Nothing new by TATA, it had been done all over the world historically
Maybe we're hearing from folks who are either not proficient in English or have a low IQ or perhaps both. Nowhere did I suggest that TATA was the first or did "something new". The concept of a company township is quite old and the new incarnation is called SEZ, in China. And perhaps our European friends will claim the Viking warriors had industrial townships too.
Well, at least everyone knows what they’re signing up for BEFORE becoming citizens of Mars 😂
*Muskovians on Planet Mars
@@jtgd better than uranus! I think that's where multiple branches of at least the us government is currently investigating.... he'll know when he feels it.
Yeah, great. Company towns have such a rich history, I'm sure these will be wonderful places to live.
lolololololololo
"I owe my soul to the Company Store."
Good on Elon / SpaceX. It would be nice if they built basic housing for the Tesla workers too, especially the ones out in Nevada... Sensible.
Company town alway being anti American . It good if Elon Musk never incorporated the town .
I interned for Walt Disney World and lived in employee housing. It was awful. Why? They have more leverage over you.
For example, I did hair and makeup for dozens of children daily at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. When I came down with strep throat, I began calling out as not only is that normally dangerous but we had Make a Wish children come into the boutique daily. I wouldn’t dare put those children at risk.
After too many callouts passed the allotted quota you are automatically terminated and given 24 hours to move out of housing. Which is what happened to me.
If Disney is doing these behaviors now, I can only imagine how much worse it’ll get if more companies such as Tesla normalize it.
*Disclaimer: This happened in 2015, prior to the pandemy so perhaps things have changed at WDW.
@@DiannaCarney Yes probably gotten worse but hey thats business at the happiest place on earth.
I can relate to that. I once had a neighbor who behaved really terribly, and who thankfully moved out. Now a new neighbor has moved in.
If my old neighbour was doing those behaviors, I can only imagine how much worse it’ll get if my new neighbor normalizes them. See my concern and how logical it is?
So they can owe their souls to the Company store would be my guess.
This reminds me of US history...
I didn’t think ChatGPT needed housing?
I'd rather imagine that these so-called company towns are a warm-up for future Mars colonies.
I see piles of dead people on Mars for lack of food.
@@mikewallace8087 you see a sad industrial future others see bright and amazing future I see a slow but treacherous journey.
Or micromanaged cult towns.
@@user-safetygate24 don't take much faith of a word that came out of a bot like you XD
@@JD-lt7uv We are extremely hardcore
Name it - BoSTeN
Bo- Boring Comapany
S- SpaceX
Te- Tesla
N- Neuralink
no sidewalks??
The rent being that cheap for a home like that (at 800 usd a month) could be a temporary thing. Maybe there could be some sort of condition attached to it?
But then it'd probably feel like being stuck in a rural area for years at a time after you work at Tesla for the 5th year.
Tata Company did this 100s of years back
A company store is a retail store selling a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as a coal mine. In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby.
A company store may also refer to a company's merchandise store, in which fans of a company or brand may purchase clothing and collectibles related to that brand.
Employee-only company stores often accept scrip or non-cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of periodic cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday. Except in very remote areas, company stores in mining towns became scarcer after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to a range of stores. Even so, the stores could survive because they provided convenience and easy credit. Company stores served numerous additional functions, as well, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural and community center where people could freely gather.
Company stores were monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby merchants (if any existed) to accept company scrip, or both. Prices, therefore, were typically high. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery, obligating employees to remain with the company until the debt was cleared.
Regarding this reputation, economic historian Price V. Fishback wrote:
The company store is one of the most reviled and misunderstood of economic institutions. In song, folktale, and union rhetoric the company store was often cast as a villain, a collector of souls through perpetual debt peonage. Nicknames, like the "pluck me" and more obscene versions that cannot appear in a family newspaper, seem to point to exploitation. The attitudes carry over into the scholarly literature, which emphasizes that the company store was a monopoly.
The songs Fishback mentions include the popular song "Sixteen Tons", which contains such lines as "Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store."
Company stores existed elsewhere than the United States, in particular in the early 1900s in Mexico, where textile workers at the largest cotton mill were paid in scrip. In a 1907 labor strike, workers attacked and looted the Río Blanco, Veracruz textile company's store. The workers were gunned down by the Mexican military, but in the aftermath of the violence, more retail outlets were opened in Rio Blanco.
Possibly the first company store in the world was in Hawaii. William Hooper started Hawaiiʻs first sugar plantation in 1835 at Koloa, on the island of Kauai. He hired 23 Hawaiian locals and paid them in a cardboard scrip, notated in various amounts. The scrip could only be exchanged for merchandise at his store. (Pau Hana- Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii- 1835-1920- by Ronald Takaki, Univ of Hawaii Press, 1983, pg 7) Source Wikipedia
Elon admire China , the progression is commune living. The seals clap for it.
A company store is just that. There have been Many iterations on the company store that are Not nefarious, for example the PX near military bases.
I doubt Musk will be creating vast armies of surfs with his stores.
@@mikewallace8087 we all have different needs. no one is forcing anyone.
@Mike Wallace You are forcing your narrative? Blanket statement goes like, buying China Made product is admiring China.
Sorry this is to long to read. Thank you though
Seems like on base military housing
Remember Fordlandia ?
Who would have thought that company towns are coming back.
They never left
They stopped teaching history, especially late 19th/early-20th century Progressive era conflicts. Calls for unionization are back, we've got a new "Yellow Peril", they're talking about recreating tenements out of office buildings ("who needs windows? share a bathroom!"), and here we've got company towns. Those who don't learn history are doomed...
They where always here have you heard of the rothchilds and other giant company owners.
Leave Elon alone!! He just tryna play Sims
Well, now it would be Simcity no?
Thanks for coming to Bastrop!
Why not invest into no discharge into the river?
And what's the point to this story WSJ?? He is providing housing, food in these communities build around the companies - they wont be priced out of the market, will have almost identical expenses and opportunities. Fair food prices in a controlled environment.
You are watching inept, very silly and very corrupt journalism, that's the point.
I don't like Elon Musk but I stayed on Military bases while I was in the military and that make things easier when you don't have to get into the traffic and have an afforable rent based on you salary . It is their choice to live there or not .
Hershey PA is not remote, it’s a suburb of the state capital Harrisburg. Sure travel times were slower back then. But there are probably coal mining towns in the same state that would better qualify as remote.
I hope they lay the roads out like Milton Keynes, UK. 1-mile wavy grid highways with roundabouts.
Excited about this!
Musk businesses have about 200 dwellings and a workforce of 150,000. Likely very specific use cases to get a dwelling. Musk businesses are in the Bay Area, LA, Austin, Berlin, Shanghai - I spot a trend here - site the business in a large city that has the best of things for workers and the best workers.
It,s called progress.
45 minutes from Austin is not remote do
All I can say is Elon Musk is a very ambitious man! ♥️ Listening to his endeavors.
110 houses wonder if they'll have Tesla solar + powerwall? Maybe Span circuit boxes.
so they live in trailers? lol
I live in a railroad worker home section in Philadelphia ...100 years old
Literally Hank Scorpio
I would move to one of his company towns in an effing heartbeat.
To compare this to the company towns of old is ridiculous.
Hello how are you?
Every single time there's been a "town" built my corporation has led to massive lay offs and economic instability. Look at the numbers, one of the best examples is Detroit. One of the most abandoned places in the country, quality of life on the floor, unemployment, and the list keeps going.
And all the steel & steelworking towns in the rust belt. Plus all the coal mining towns. They are only a great idea for a couple generations then become crime-ridden ghost towns. This will be even worse. A town that needs specialised education to work for the main employer. So it'll have no opportunities for the next generation. This won't be a community, it'll be temporary housing. Like a military base.
Detroit and the various "Rust Belt" cities at least had normal public government oversight and all the usual complement of support services/businesses. Haven't watched this video yet, but when I've heard about modern company-towns (libertarians love these for some reason) they never seem to account for either gov't services or even small businesses.
@@Eoin-B Not even 2 generations - look at the old Kodak, Polaroid, and IBM towns in upstate New York, Long Island, and Western/Central Mass & Connecticut. They shot up as upper-middle class havens, anchoring entire regions, only to collapse once that business folded, or took root elsewhere.
Knowing Elon, there's a good chance the town's motto will be, *_"Work sets you free."_*
Gotta control that labor force. Cant have them be anything but loyal to the boss man 🤣
They get paid in dollars still
Well, Tex becoming the new Cali.
This actually has merits. When Tesla/Panasonic opened in Northern Nevada, home prices and rents skyrocketed and the government entities failed miserably in terms of infrastructure and housing solutions in terms of permitting and approval. Years later and the issues are still persistent
remote controlled cybertruck. noice
So he wants to be a serf lord?
Have you heard the legend of Night City?
Hello fan
Severance…
Sounds reminiscent of failed Fordlândia.
Elon will definitely pay his workers well. This isn’t 1920s
If there’s a concern about clean water, then take a sample and get it checked. Please provide statistical evidence for claims.
The trailer park boys better film the next season here!
Correction: @2:50 one can clearly see they are “alleged violations” that any person can submit. What research has the Wall Street Journal done to confirm if these are allegations or actual violations? Also the first clip stating that company towns are un-American yet in the same sentence he says company towns built America shows how much thought went into this 🤣🤣🤣
Not sure why they highlighted the "alleged violations". I've submitted environmental complaints and I think we're up to 10 confirmed environmental violations, depending on how you count them. I've got all the documents on my site Keep Bastrop Boring
So hes literally Messing with Texas now
It must be boring at the Boring company, seems all the contracts it had fell thru...
What the Boring Company was offering just wasn't compelling enough for the price. They are fully focused on R&D now.
ELON MUSK MOTIVACIÓN.
Oooh, I want to work for Tesla ❤✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️
Run, Ford did this too, don’t do it
Company towns have great track records
Building on #gulf #coast usually a mistake with increasing #hurricane and #climate change #activity , #wind and #flood #proof ?
ÍDOLO!!! SIS LO MAS GRANDE QUE HAY ELIOT!!!! VIVA CIENCIA !!!! NO SE SO SERAS MASÓN PERO SOS DE LOS BUENOS NO TE NETES CON LA VUDA DE NADIE SOLO INVESTIGAS Y APLICAS LA TECNOLOGÍA OJALA MUCHOS INVIRTIERAN ASI LA PLATA UN CAPO UN GENIO LO MÁS GRANDE QUE HAY
Come onn 😂😂
That coal mining time was way different
In general life was horrible back then
I sold 8 hrs a day to my job already. Ain't no way I'm letting them control the rest.
We would love to have you coming and start a company to Sask Canada ther is alot of land that get people working,we have alot of minig,oil,gas farming 10,000.lakes its beautiful here ,but we aer hard working,
Comparing these towns to the company towns of old is very disingenuous. Spacex is not a company based on resource extraction. They need highly educated/ skilled people to move to these places. These people can pack up and leave if their company isn't treating them well. Tesla and SpaceX often pay for employees to relocate to Starbase. To think these companies that pay well, and have good benefits, including maternity and paternity leave/ bonuses, would create company stores and restrictive policies of the exploitative company towns to make a little bit of money is laughable. Tesla and SpaceX have been consistently ranked the first or second most desired place amongst engineering graduates for the last decade for a reason. If you put them in your resume, you're golden in an automotive or aerospace career.
White collar or blue, the same logistics apply - any friction applied to changing jobs, incl. relocation costs, time-delayed bonuses, non-compete agreements, visa-status restrictions, or straight-up debt, tips the scale unfairly in favor of the employer. It moves you away from a free-flowing labor market, and puts you into a situation where seeking another job becomes burdensome and functionally impossible, even if it's not legally/physically restricted.
@@mandisaw The high cost of housing that is so very commonplace today is already detrimental to a free-flowing labor market. If Tesla, SpaceX, or the Boring company can leverage their size and provide affordable housing (avoiding zoning restrictions), that would be all but beneficial to geographical mobility for workers.
@@mandisaw isn’t that what the American government is doing already.
@@lime221-zu8ur High housing costs track with booming job markets. Austin has loads of options for people to work, more jobs even than the locals can fill - that's part of why the cost of housing is so high. And zoning is barely an issue in Texas.
If Tesla et al genuinely wanted to improve housing affordability, then they would be kicking more money into the State/local tax coffers. Or advocating for more support-services to keep employed people in their homes (both their employees and all the various support workers).
This is just more libertarian-authoritarian fantasy - it'll go just as badly as the other attempts throughout the 19th & 20th century.
Get your head out of the sand. Once he's isolated his employees, he will demand they commit to being "extremely hardcore" and micromanage every aspect of their lives!
Never actually specifies what about the Boring co. is not "pro clean water"
The Boring Company wanted to discharge treated wastewater into the Colorado River.
NIMBY - Not in My Backyard
Elon Musk is using Chinese model of supply chain. He wants everything close to the factory so that he can finish things quickly.
That's not Chinese model, China also imports a lot of stuff, they put it together for very cheap due to lower wages and regulations.
More like an American model-of well-run American companies, that is. Remember, he brought his model to China, not the other way around.
To think we all helped pay for this....whether we wanted to or not....
You didn’t pay for this you saved money.
How exactly did we all pay for this?
Would be really curious to hear your answer because it can't be taxes since SpaceX and Boring Company are privately owned and funded and Tesla isn't getting money from tax payers other than those that are intelligent enough to buy a Tesla and invest in the company.
Cybertruck
Injin ni vituu tatuu kemshaft crenshaft volv piston ringz
I worked at hotels for years and they provided meals and accomodation as they were that kind of industry..it increased my salary by thousands of dollars and I could have a life and socials and our family could see us when we get time off. I lived it. You who say it's controlling are a dummy who under pays your staff who work to get to the office.
And recession is perfect time to do so...
Texas. By the way, it is not only for Musk ventures, now it is a state where new facilities for semiconductors are being built.
Wasn't there a Simpson's episode on a similar topic?
That didn't end well!
This is the future. Bravo Elon.
It this was Apple. This wouldn’t be news.
If apple did it then there would be a rush from everyone to copy it.
No your wrong here. Many CEOs have tried to implement company towns and many have been scrutinized for the idea. Your letting your bias show here.
@@danielgrinevich8503 these projects didn’t start over night. These towns started developing years ago. WSJ is using Musk as headline news and for that they have a bias too. My bias as shareholder is warranted. I want this man to succeed.
why? lot of land and no people in america
Oh brother. I had high hopes for a model town but I’m not too certain about what I see Musk doing with these two “towns”. A real town takes time to become a great place to live. I’ve been thinking lots about how to make a current “town” into an ideal model town. I can’t put all my ideas into this space but do some research, please. Take an urban geography course or two. Look at all the company town issues of the past. Look at all the places where folks have (tried to) set up their Shangrilas. It’s easier to take something that already exists than start from zero.!(?) Look at your start of Tesla with an automobile that already existed, if not yet in full production or with THE vehicle innards you imagined. Sorry, just a few thoughts but if you would like to discuss further you’ll need to contact me & I’ll be happy to share ideas. I’m not a knowledge hoarder but I likely have an unusual database in my brain.
Keep killing it Tesla!!!
amazing
WSJ: How can we try to put a negative spin on building new housing?
Not their point, it's more the exploitative relationship of the companies on the workers inside housing. I am 50/50 on these kinda things, It's good that they are providing substantially cheaper(cost and maybe build quality) housing, but what protections do the employees have there? Is there even a proper lease? Will they be evicted 30 days after firing?
I mean company town housing isn't even in theory actual housing. If anything its more like a stable for humans.
@@chadnoneo9769 You cant forget that the people that will be living there are highly skilled and sought after engineers, if their company treats them poorly they can just pack up and leave. Of course a town like this disincentivizes those kinds of actions but its not like in the old days where they literally had no other choice but to live and work there.
Unless these towns are in special administrative zones I don't think questions like that are up to the company, though I don't know for sure.
Get your head out of the sand. Once he's isolated his employees, he will demand they commit to being "extremely hardcore" and micromanage every aspect of their lives!
@@JD-lt7uv you dont work for tesla or spacex if you dont work "extremely hardcore". These people are highly skilled, sought after and paid engineers. Theyll be just fine
best case scenario they turn in to Hershey, Pennsylvania worst case scenario they become coal towns in west Virginia
You will live in the company town.
And you will be happy.
Hapoo ndio kwenya compreshion
This struck me as a biased and myopic presentation. He’s revolutionizing several industries. Obviously there are going to be trade offs. The question is whether the gains exceed the costs. And obviously they do.
Gains? For whom? The company or the employees?
The Typical WSJ Negative Spin
Let companies work, stop this anti-enterprise thinking
So the guy hates the fact that the remote area is becoming prosperous and not so remote, elevating property values... its called change and the enhanced value of his land can be used to buy two remote houses elsewhere if he so chooses.
This is nothing new, nor is the idea of a store subsidized by the company to bring goods and services to a place lacking them.
This is NOT the company store of the coal mine days turning people into surfs.
This has been done by Many other companies since and, oddly, hasn't enslaved the work force so far as I can tell.
The story is that Musk's companies are producing infrastructure where it wasn't before.
Plain and simple, to support his workers.
Who Doesn't do this?
Spacex, for example, Must be in a remote location so falling rockets won't slaughter hundreds of people... even then he has the EPA worring about him disrupting the lives of swamp creatures... the way every developer impacts some life form or other.
... I suppose we're tired of berating strip miners and loggers.
Elon's 'town' in Texas,, is no different from Silicone Valley, in California, ay....🤔...🤷♀️
Is that Elon in disguise? He has the same voice.
"I am a fan of Elon Musk," Says he as he shakes his head negatively. The WSJ reporter probably brought him the toy cybertruck.
Company towns: They can be very good, I spent my adulthood in a company mining town and it seemed to work out just fine. Lots of company towns have done very well for the residents.
Those towns could be great but they MUST have the environment into account, they have to be sustainable!
We're extremely good at taking the environment, and a trillion other things, into account. So good in fact that we have a housing shortage because nothing can get built on account of the lengthy and expensive permitting process and the environmental approval processes.
Nope, nope, nope, a company town sounds nice in the beginning. Up until you’re on the outs with the job and then they can upend your entire life. Fire you, take “your” house all in one foul swoop.
Rock on Elon
remains to be seen, lets proceed to the future and maybe you'll be proud of the best time in history.
Would the thousands he’s laying off be kicked out of these homes ?
Providing jobs and housing for employees, awesome 👍😊
👌
Screwing employees and customers, not so awesome!
More like leverage. Oh you want to unionize...well you can be homeless, how does that sound?
👍
Yeah, so he can keep a careful eye on every single thing they do and micromanage their lives! Be realistic.
soviet union style lol